About

The small, friendly indiepop festival Indiefjord will be taking place for a seventh time on the 8th and 9th of July 2023.

The festival is located in the village of Bjørke, western Norway, not far from Ålesund. The village is based in the innermost part of the Hjørundfjord, surrounded by the spectacular “Sunnmøre Alps”.

Indiefjord is a volunteer-run festival, and all income goes back to covering the bands’ travel costs. The festival is organised purely for the love of music, and to show our area of Norway to visitors from abroad – and for those visitors to bring some of their culture and music to us. To see new friendships forming and to be able to listen to our favourite music by the fjord are our rewards.

Bands that have played so far include: Kip Berman from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (USA), The Burning Hell (Canada), The Smittens (USA), The School (UK), The Tuts (UK), Gary Olson from The Ladybug Transistor (USA), The Just Joans (UK), The Spook School (UK), Lyla Foy (UK), Amanda Mair (Sweden), Nick Garrie (UK), Fightmilk (UK), Kid Canaveral (UK), The Electric Pop Group (Sweden), Sam Airey (UK), Young Romance (UK),  Robert Post (Norway), Egil Olsen (Norway), Stars in Coma (Sweden) and Agent blå (Sweden) + many, many more from all over the world. Over the years Indiefjord has been lucky enough to collaborate with Bakketunet, Hjørundfjord Adventures/Hjørundfjord Vandrerhjem Bjørke, Bjørke Rom og Camping, Tind og Tare, Hos Maria, Morks Antikk/Galleri Bukke-Jo and others. Our stages are: Bakketunet, Notanauset boathouse, Bjørke Church and Haukly, Bjørke’s community hall.

The story so far:

Indiefjord as a festival and club night was founded in 2014, based on a love for indiepop and a wish for other people to enjoy and explore it. The Indiefjord organisers consist of the Haddal/Mork family (John, Ingvild, Silja, Elin-Grethe and Ivar) and various other relatives + villagers + other volunteers from the region. The festival’s aim is to bring indiepop to the fjords.

The original Indiefjord was a party (or, as it turns out, a festival) for friends and friends of friends in the village that the Mork family is from: Bjørke by the Hjørundfjord. It was two days of fun and music on the 12th and 13th of July 2014, where friends from Sweden and the UK played lots of catchy indiepop and there was a vivid festival-vibe to it all. The festival opened up to others too, and along with bands and guests from all over Europe, the locals all helped making the atmosphere unforgettable and magical. People of all ages seemed to enjoy what was going on throughout that weekend, and it was ever only meant to be a once in a lifetime experience.

However, in February 2015, it felt the time was right to start planning another Indiefjord… The Haddal/Mork family and other organisers (and those who had attended in 2014) simply missed the vibe and the people from the previous summer and felt Indiefjord deserved the “right to live”. The second ever Indiefjord happened on the 11th and 12th of July, and felt as magical as the first one – with more people from the Sunnmøre region having discovered the festival, too. In the Haddal/Mork family everything that happens more than once becomes a regular occurrence – and so… Indiefjord happened again on the 9th and 10th of July 2016. Wonderful, wonderful times. After six months of recharging Team Indiefjord decided that there would be a fourth Indiefjord in 2017: 15th and 16th of July. That year we got such a kick we decided on the spot to organise a fifth Indiefjord, which took place 14th and 15th of July 2018. With the festival constantly evolving we were having too much fun to stop just yet, and so… the sixth Indiefjord was announced for the 13th and 14th of July 2019.

What was meant to be the 7th Indiefjord would have taken place 11th and 12th of July 2020. Sadly, we had to cancel due to Covid-19 and travel restrictions + the safety of everyone. We tried again 10th and 11th of July 2021, but sadly the pandemic was still very much ongoing. So… third time lucky; the pandemic didn’t break us and we were back 9th and 10h of July 2022. It was partly rainy, but 100% fab times were had that year, too. 

We, the organisers, are hoping to keep the festival small and friendly and the ticket numbers limited – to preserve the feeling of staying in a parallel, peaceful universe for the weekend. We hope you can make it!

If you have got any questions email us on info@indiefjord.com – or if urgent, call or text +47 90 19 67 24 (Silja) and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Love, Team Indiefjord